SJDK’s Walker organ was installed second-hand in 1958, as a stop-gap after the original was destroyed in the Blitz. It had originally been built as a domestic instrument for a wealthy home and, from the outset, was recognised as unsuitable for the space at SJDK. It was intended as temporary, to be replaced no later than the 1970s.

Ongoing deterioration has been making the organ difficult and frustrating to play. It has not been a suitable teaching instrument during the entire time SJDK has had a youth music ministry – and much of it has been often unusable in the past decade. 50 years after it should have been replaced it required constant, expensive and necessarily temporary repair, to the extent that in late 2023 it was deemed to be inoperable.

Despite this, music at SJDK continues to thrive. Pre-Covid, there was a plan to raise considerable sums to build a new organ, which would have cost in excess of £2 million. Post Covid, due to our on-going musical partnership with St John’s College, Cambridge, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to purchase the organ in the College chapel, so have revised our thinking. It is relatively new and of outstanding quality but not appropriate for that space – the College is purchasing an instrument more suited to the building.

We have agreed a nominal purchase sum of £30,000 for the organ; there are additional costs for removing it from St John’s College Chapel, altering it for our space and installation at SJDK, which total £900,000. The work will be carried out by the original builder, Mander Organs, and we plan to install the College organ at SJDK in 2025.

While this is a substantial amount for an inner-city church to find, we are confident we have a solution that will last for many decades – and for far less than the previous £2 million estimate for a new organ. Importantly, the impact that an instrument of this quality will have on our young musicians’ musical education and the social impact it brings, will be for a similarly long term period.

St John’s College’s organ is in a very different league to the current instrument at SJDK. We have a golden opportunity to acquire a cathedral-standard organ for SJDK, which will completely address all our issues and will boost our earning potential through concerts and recitals, which cannot take place with an electronic instrument. The purchase also enables us to upcycle and rehabilitate a decent instrument.